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RFID Reader ID-20LA (125 kHz)

Description: RFID (radio-frequency identification) is the wireless non-contact use of radio-frequency electromagnetic fields, for the purposes of identifying and tracking tags attached to objects. This is the ID-20LA, a very simple to use RFID reader module from ID Innovations. With a built in antenna, the only holdup is the 2mm pin spacing. Power the module, hold up a 125kHz card, and get a serial string output containing the unique ID of the card.

Note: The new ID-20LA is essentially the same as the older ID-20, but has a lower input voltage.

Customer Comments

If anybody is looking to connect this to a Raspberry Pi it’s pretty easy. Use one of the 5V pins from the header to power it, along with ground and then just connect the TX pin of the rfid module to the RX pin on the Pi header. I’ve created a Python module that makes interfacing with the reader quite simple.

Maybe I am missing it but it would be great if you guys included the Eagle name on the page. Searching ID-20 turns up nothing since you named it ID-12/20. This is a common problem I have had using your library. For example I would have never found LED Tactile button (COM-10442) without someone asking you in the comments section to get the answer TACTILE-PTH-LED-12MM.

Note that in Eagle, you can use the asterisk as a wildcard when searching for parts in the ADD dialog. Searching for ID* will bring back all the parts that start with “ID”. Searching for *TACTILE* will bring back all the parts with “TACTILE” anywhere in the name. Sorry that the names are cryptic (as you can see they need to hold a lot of information), but the wildcard trick usually saves the day.

There are still something like 20 TACTILEs in there I would love to be able to just go to the part. I do like that some reference the site number in the description which is also searched. For example entering COM-10063 finds JOYSTICK_MINI. I still maintain it would be great to have the library name on the product page or the productID in the description of the library part.

I know that this won’t fit on standard breadboards but I can’t seem to find the “breakout board available below.” I’ve searched around on Sparkfun as well and found this: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/retired/8423 which looks like it would do the trick, but it has been discontinued. Someone in the comments recommends this product: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8272. Is this the solution now?

The datasheet specifies that it will output 10 ASCII characters that is in hexadecimal, the next two characters are just a checksum and doesn’t actually make the code any more unique. So… I guess the answer is no.

If you power it directly from the 3.3v (or 5v it looks like?) out of the Raspi, it should work. Skimming through the data sheet I didn’t see the current draw, but I doubt it’s too much, as long as you’re not leaving cards in ‘range’ for very long.

Since the Pi inputs are 3.3V, you probably should go with 3.3V to power the ID-20LA. At 3.3V, the ID-20LA current draw is about 18 mA both when idle and when a card is in range. At 3.3V the range is reduced to about 5 cm (using a card type RFID tag). At 5V, the current draw is about 27 mA, and the read range is 7 to 8 cm using a card tag.

Customer Reviews

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worked perfect for my application

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